[Art Angel 소식]Pixar Tractor 1.0 released

[하얀겨울]

https://renderman.pixar.com/products/tools/tractor.html

Tractor 1.0 은 픽사의 랜더링과 기타 네트웍 어플리케이션을 위한 완전히 새롭운 차세대 분산 프로세싱 솔루션입니다. 섹계 최대의 랜더팜에 대한 연산 수요를 수년간 관리한 경험을 바탕으로 Tractor 는 수만개가 넘는 프로세서들의 멀티코어 네트웍의 연산능력과 성능에 대한 요구를 충족시킵니다.

크게 3가지 요소로 구성되어 있습니다.

1. 트랙터 엔진 : 수행되는 작업을 관리해 줍니다.

2. 트랙터 블레이드 : 각 원격 노드에서 수행되는 파이썬 기반의 싱행형 서버

3. 트랙터 대시보드 : 트랙터 엔진의 컨트롤 기능을 제공하는 커스터마이즈 가능한 웹 브라우저 사용자 인터페이스

Distributed Processing Solution for RenderMan and Other Applications

Tractor Overview

Tractor 1.0 is Pixar's totally new, next generation, distributed processing solution for rendering and other network intensive applications. Derived from years of experience in managing the computational demands of the worlds largest render farms, Tractor is specifically engineered to address the extreme scalability and performance requirements of multi-core networks of tens of thousands of processors and more. Functionally, Tractor consists of three primary components:

1. The Tractor-Engine maintains the central job queue and dispatches tasks.
2. The Tractor-Blade is a Python based execution server running on each remote node.
3. The Tractor-Dashboard is a customizable web browser user interface providing centralized control of the Tractor-Engine.

Tractor's streamlined architecture is designed for rapid deployment, delivering very high performance with a queuing engine capable of dispatching over 500 tasks per second. Tractor utilizes proven, open web standards and is highly customizable. Systems administrators can easily add Python extension modules to Tractor-Blades and customize the specifics of how various tasks are executed.

Features

1. Engineering focus on high-throughput job distribution for large farms.
2. Simplified "plug-and-play" blade deployment on any size farm.
3. Web UI for ubiquitous access.
4. Simplified scripting and control using web technologies.

 

How does Tractor compare to Alfred?

Tractor is intended to replace Pixar's existing Alfred and Alfserver products. In addition it is a cost effective standalone solution that can be deployed to control a wide variety of non-render tasks such as physics simulations or compositing tasks.

Because Alfred and Alfserver are still committed to production, Tractor will be phased in to replace these products over an extended transition term ending on June 30st 2012. The biggest difference is that Tractor has a significantly simpler licensing model:

• With Alfred, each individual user desiring to control remote render tasks from a personal workstation needs to acquire a separate Alfred license. Likewise an Alfserver remote execution server license has to be installed on every network client to which those tasks are submitted.
• In contrast, Tractor uses a simpler "task centric" licensing model that regulates the number of tasks running simultaneously across the entire render farm, independent of the number of users or the total number of spooled jobs. Any number of the plug-and-play Tractor-Blade servers can be started, only those that are actively executing tasks are counted. Tractor-Engine and Tractor-Dashboard are accessible to everyone, and desktop users are not licensed individually, as was the case for Alfred.
  

Tractor's flexible task centric licensing model is designed to align with RenderMan's change to Unlimited Threading in which a render is regarded as a singly invoked task with no restriction on the resources applied to that task, and with few dependencies determined by specific hardware configurations.

For more information, check out theTractor FAQ

How do Alfred and Alfserver users transition to Tractor?

Because of Tractor's simplified task centric licensing model, the transition plan provides all Alfred and Alfserver licenses on current maintenance with the option of a "like for like" free conversion to Tractor at any time within the transition term ending on June 30th 2012. This option can be exercised at any time during this term and is not reversible. Alfred and Alfserver will remain supported over this period at the end of which both products will be no longer supported or sold.

The simplest way to relate "like for like" to your current license entitlement is that 1 Alfred license translates to 1 equivalent Tractor license. Likewise 1 Alfserver license translates to 1 equivalent Tractor license. It does not matter if Alfred and Alfserver were purchased as standalone products or included as part of RenderMan Studio, RenderMan Artist Tools or RenderMan Pro Server. In all situations the free "like for like" principle applies. For example:

• 1 RenderMan Studio and 100 RenderMan ProServer licenses will transition to 101 Tractor licenses. 
  
  
• 10 Renderman Studio and 200 RenderMan Pro Server licenses will transition to 210 Tractor licenses.
  
• 1 RenderMan Studio license will transition to 1 Tractor license.
  
• 10 standalone Alfred licenses and 5 standalone Alfserver licenses that were separately purchased will transition to 15 Tractor licenses.
  

Only licenses on current maintenance qualify for the free transition to Tractor, which from its inception is intended to be a standalone product with an independent release schedule, allowing Pixar to deliver timely product updates for greater operational flexibility. For further information on the transition plan and how it impacts your existing entitlement please email rendermansales@pixar.com.

ystem Requirements

The various Tractor components are supported on the following hardware and operating systems.

1) The Tractor-Engine 
The central job queue

• Linux 32-bit and 64-bit, (gcc4+)
• Mac OS X, 10.5 and 10.6

2) The Tractor-Blade
The remote execution server

• All platforms supporting Python 2.5, including: Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

3) The Tractor-Dashboard
The web-based user interface

• Firefox
• Safari
• Chrome
• No platform-specific plug-ins required

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